KTMPO board, plus elections and such

Howdy, dear readers. It’s been a while, again.

Curmudgeon looked at the numbers – more than 25,000 page views since January! Thank you, Dear Readers. Love me, hate me, don’t ignore me!

Let’s backtrack to the Oct. 2 Copperas Cove city council meeting for a moment and then maybe jump into Election Central. Depending on how long I go with this.

The history-making vote by the Copperas Cove city council went down on October 2, and it went about like Curmudgeon expected. I always wondered who would ultimately be for it. It was abundantly clear how some councilmen felt – especially James Pierce Jr., Jay Manning, and Charlie Youngs who were against it, and councilmen David Morris and Kirby Lack, who were for it. Dapper-

Dan Yancey was abundantly silent from the dais on the matter until it came time to discuss and vote, and Mark-E-Marc Payne would murmur about the uncertainties of it all.

There is still a LOT of backlash going on, on social media and elsewhere about the vote by citizens are upset that the vote didn’t go their way.  Because everyone needs to get their way and be listened to or “we won’t be your friends no more.” (sorry, snark leak)

The story is not over on the Business 190 median project.

There WAS a lot of uncertainty prior to the vote on Oct 2., and even now the decision on the amended plan rests with the Killeen Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization, and if that group believes the amendment is still in keeping with the original intentions of the project.

The changes will keep three lanes in each direction, keep the sidewalk, and have a dedicated bike lane that is separate from the sidewalk.

So, who is on that policy board? Is it a deep, dark secret? Nawww…. It amazes Curmudgeon how people do not look for information that is easily accessible. But instead ask their friends instead of going to the source.

It’s a matter of public record on the KTMPO website. Here is the KTMPO policy board:

Mayor Frank Seffrood (Copperas Cove), Chair

Mayor Tim Davis (Temple), Vice Chair

Judge John Firth (Coryell County Judge)

Councilmenber Susan Long (Temple)

Mayor Spencer Smith (Harker Heights)

Mayor Jose Segarra (City of Killeen)

Mayor Tammy Cockrum (Rogers)

Tim Brown (Bell County commissioner precinct 2)

Mark Rainwater (Lampasas County commissioner precinct 4)

Mayor Marian Grayson (Belton)

Councilmember Gregory Johnson (Killeen)

Councilmember Butch Menking (Killeen)

Carol Warlick (General Manager, Hill Country Transit District)

Elias Rmeili (District Engineer, TxDOT Brownwood District)

Stan Swiatek (District Engineer, TxDOT Waco District)

Why so many Killeen and Temple people on that board? Here is how the board is selected:

“The voting membership of the Transportation Planning Policy Board consists of one representative for each city with a population between 10,000 and 40,000, two representatives for cities between 40,000 and 75,000 and three representatives for populations over 75,000 as determined by the most recent Census. All cities within the MPO Boundary with a population under 10,000 shall be represented by their county official or appointee. Additionally, all counties have one designated representative, with the exception of Bell County which contains a majority of the MPO and population.”

So there ya go.

What’s the point of all this? It’s important for people to know who’s on the KTMPO board and what they do and why they do it. MPO’s, metropolitan planning organizations, are groups that are required for all all metropolitan areas of over 50,000 in population. MPO’s approve the use of federal transportation funds in their planning area.

(Interesting, also, that a BIG chunk of the policy board is also the technical advisory committee, which already said yes to the amendments.)

You can also read more here about MPO’s: https://ktmpo.org/about/mpo-101/

There’s gobs and bogs of info on this website about what KMTPO does and why, etc.

Which leads Curmudgeon to the next point: The Business 190 project is BIGGER than Copperas Cove. It is abundantly clear that a contingent of the council (at least three) don’t want this project which “another” Copperas Cove council approved as a priority, before these three took office. This is a crappy way to long-range plan. No wonder Copperas Cove’s main roadway looks like a drunk planned it.

Anyhoo, Business 190 isn’t a short-term project, by any means.

But it will all come down to the policy board on Wednesday this week.

Of course Curmudgeon isn’t a policy expert nor does Curmudgeon have the ability to read minds, nor am I a clairvoyant engineer like so many naysayers, but if *I* were on the board, I’d look at a few things for this amendment:

Does the amendment to the project still make safety paramount for the project overall?

Curmudgeon believes so.

Will the sidewalks proposed make Business 190 safer?

Yes. Curmudgeon has wanted to take photos of all the haphazard sidewalks and lack thereof on Business 190. It’s dangerous now, y’all, and like Curmudgeon said before, the city of Copperas Cove will NEVER be able to afford sidewalks for Business 190. Especially since it can’t install them in other key areas of the city now. (Will get to that in another post.) This chance will NOT come our way again. Unless TxDOT decides to just go and do it anyway.

What about the bicycle lanes? Safer?

Yes. If you have seen bicycle lanes in other cities, they are clearly delineated. The reason people don’t bicycle on Business 190 now is a given. It’s too dang dangerous without a dedicated area to ride.

(The one possible deal-killer that Curmudgeon sees for the amendment, is if keeping the three lanes, PLUS adding the median from the center “suicide/let’s-play-chicken” lane, and adding the bicycle lane, and keeping the [narrower] sidewalk all within the existing right of way, will meet TxDOT lane width criteria. It’s not clear how wide those six lanes of traffic must be. I mean, we saw the fiasco with Avenue D, which was silliness….but Curmudgeon digresses…)

Curmudgeon now refers the reader to this information on the KTMPO website:

“KTMPO is working to develop a Regional Multimodal Plan. The RMP will identify vision and goals for integrated multimodal transportation systems in the KTMPO area, and will develop specific needs-based potential projects for the thoroughfare, bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and freight systems.”

You can see it all on this page right here: https://ktmpo.org/planning/bike-and-pedestrian/

The Business 190 project is in keeping with that plan. “Integrated” means it’ll work with the regional system as a whole. I-14 is coming and hopefully another two lanes of 190 south bypass in the future (pleeeeease, KTMPO board who will score the proposed two more lanes for the bypass– THAT is a safety issue, for sure!!! Also adding those two lanes will bolster the regional effort to enlarge I-14. A win for all.).

Remember, dear readers, Business 190 does NOT belong to the City of Copperas Cove, nor to its citizens. It belongs to the State of Texas and is overseen by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Okay, ‘nuff said about that.

Curmudgeon was going to talk about Copperas Cove elections, but will call it a day with this one and get back to elections next post. Which will probably be sooner than later!

Oh, Lawdy, the Cove Chamber and EDC will rise again – will they receive again the carte blanche of the past after the November 6^th election? Will the CCCISD school board see two incumbents nudged out of office? We shall see!

Peace, love, and bunnies, y’all!